May I present our newly renovated kitchen!  Scott and I are definitely still in the “Do we really live here?!?” phase.  We’re very happy with the results.  And I’m so glad because mid-reno, when we were on our fifth week of being gypsies with a toddler and in the fourth house we were staying in, I couldn’t see an end in sight and I thought we had lost our minds.  Carter did his time sleeping in a pack-n-play, and we cleaned someone else’s house each week before we packed up and moved on to the next.  But now that the dust has settled, and so have we, I realize that it was all worth it and I would do it again.  I believe that loving your home is important and I’m so grateful to come home to our newly updated kitchen and my family each night.

And a big thank you to everyone who put us up while they were out of town!  During our “Tour de Denver” we spent time at my Grammy’s in the Foothills, at a friend’s in The Highlands, at my mom’s, in Wash Park and in our friends’ basement.  We experienced many neighborhoods and living situations, and while we had fun seeing what it was like to live in someone else’s shoes it made us really love and appreciate our neighborhood and home, which we feel is perfect for our little family.  And staying with family and friends saved us a lot of money, money that we were able to pour back into our renovation.

As you can see we updated the closed-off 1960’s “cabin kitchen” complete with a wood-paneled Sub-Zero, narrow island and shallow cabinets and upgraded to something much more modern.  With the new white kitchen, we wanted to incorporate rustic elements so it felt part of the older home which was built in the sixties.  The darker wood island, custom hood and wine barrel stave lights all help to incorporate a lived-in vibe for our new kitchen.

As part of the work, we expanded the kitchen by pushing the wall where the refrigerator and range now sit, back three feet!  We stole space from the room that was previously our dining room and which we converted into a home office.  This required a structural beam and closing off a second entry into the room, which we happily replaced with a pantry for added storage.

We also added can lights to brighten up the space and painted the entire first floor a griege in place of the buttery cream that was there before.  And I think one of the biggest transformations can be seen on the floor.  We laid hardwood over the dated parquet floors in the new dining room, kitchen and hallway and tied them into the existing hardwoods in the family room and entry way.  Then we stained everything, including the stairs, a darker water-based floor stain.

We worked with HCI Interiors & Remodeling and c2Design to complete the project and if you live in the Denver metro area, I highly recommend them both.  Corinne, the owner and lead interior designer at c2Design, is a friend and ultimately the decision to hire a designer was made because I just wanted her to keep everything cohesive and help me with the finishing touches.  And she nailed it!  Corinne and her team are behind all of the light fixtures, wallpaper, back splash, cabinet pulls and even some of our new furniture.  I had a vision and Corinne helped me execute it beautifully, and really stay true to what Scott and I set out to accomplish.  Trying to pull off a renovation that looks like a combination of your Pinterest pins is much harder than you would think people!  Corinne and the c2 team made this project much less stressful than it could have been and I’m so grateful.

Part of our project included moving our dining room into the area that was formerly Carter’s playroom, which would have technically been considered a formal sitting room.  Since we don’t need a formal sitting area, and our home looked like it had been taken over by a daycare when you first walked through the front door into the entryway which leads into this space, we decided to move our dining room into the area we had previously considered wasted space.  As you can see in the background, we moved and organized Carter’s toys into the family room so he still has plenty of space to run wild.

So now when you walk through the front door you see this lovely dining room with a table made from reclaimed wood.  I absolutely love that we have a fireplace in our dining room which just makes it feel so cozy!  I can’t wait to host our first Thanksgiving and hopefully many dinner parties in this space.

Here are the before and after pictures of our new office/ the old dining room which we took 3 feet from to expand the kitchen.  We still need to do some decorating, but at least Scott has space to set up when he works from home!

And to top of our renovation we painted our double front door blue, which I really pops. against the stone.  As part of our first floor remodel, we also gutted the main floor powder room and spruced up our laundry room which I will be sharing in a later post.

So happy to be home!